Two Strangers. Entangled Lives.

George S. Stewart and James E. Hooper couldn’t uncouple their fates

George S. Stewart, a struggling brickmaker from New Hampshire, struck a deal with James E. Hooper, a railroad worker from Paris, Maine, with a new family. Hooper had been drafted into the U.S. Army and, through a draft broker, arranged to pay Stewart to take his place as his substitute.

An arrangement that was all too common during the American Civil War.

Yet, the fates of Stewart and Hooper, who may never even have met, became inextricably intertwined.

Somehow both men ended up in the Army. And neither of them would make it back home.

Episode 15 premieres September 2. Listen to the trailer today.

Through diaries, pension files, military records, newspapers, and family history, Company D reconstructs the lives of Civil War soldiers nearly erased by time. Listeners have called Company D “gripping history” and “microhistory at its best.”

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